Rivers

Rivers, RICHARD WOODVILLE, or WIDVILLE, EARL, was esquire to Henry V., and during his son's reign was made Governor of the Tower (1424) and knighted (1425). He fought in France and in England, in the Wars of the Roses for the Lancastrians. He took to wife Jaquetta of Luxembourg, widow of the Duke of Bedford, and it was their daughter Elizabeth whom Edward IV. married. This led Sir Richard Woodville to change over to the Yorkist side, and his royal father-in-law made him successively Constable of England, Baron Rivers (1448), and Earl Rivers (1466). But the favour shown to the Rivers family offended the old nobility, and their avarice aroused the enmity of the people. In 1469 Earl Rivers was seized and beheaded at Northampton, but accounts differ as to who were his executioners—whether Robin of Rededale or the officers of the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick.—His son ANTHONY, known as Lord Scales during the father's lifetime, succeeded to the earldom in 1469. He stuck closely to his royal brother-in-law, who made him captain-general of the forces. After Edward's death he acted on the council of regency for his infant son, but was seized by order of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and put to death at Pontefract in 1483.